IT Ministry Yet to Appoint New USF Board Members

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) is yet to appoint new members to the board of the Universal Service Fund (USF) despite previous memberships expiring last year.

The three-year term of the USF board concluded on July 18th, 2022, but the ministry is yet to fill the now vacant slots as per rules dictated under Section 158 of the Companies Act, 2017. More importantly, MoITT has not yet advertised for the nomination of USF’s Board of Directors.

Sources told ProPakistani that ads will be published for nominating up to four private sector candidates for the USF Board. According to USF Board regulations, one candidate each is to be nominated by cellular license holders, fixed-line operators, data license holders, and consumer associations.

The USF Board consists of Secretary IT & Telecom, Member Telecom, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and Chief Executive National Information Technology Board (NITB) as directors on behalf of the government.

While the PTA Chairman’s tenure is over, nominations to fill the highest telecom seat in the country are yet to be finalized.

The USF board elections were to be held before October 20, 2022, the notification of which has not yet been provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) by the IT Ministry.

The SECP has taken notice of the non-election of the USF board as per law. It is noteworthy that the Joint Registrar of Companies has written a letter to the Company Secretary USF regarding the holding of board elections.

ProPakistani has obtained a copy of this letter, which reminded the recipient that the elections were supposed to be held on October 20th, 2022 but according to the records available with the securities agency, the USF is yet to announce them.

“It should be explained why the USF Board of Directors has not been selected as per regulations. So in this case, all rules enable this Office to probe the matter as it sees fit”, the letter stated. Despite this letter, no action has been taken to reconstitute the USF board.

Responding to queries regarding impediments to the reconstitution of the Board, USF officials said the Fund’s rules are changing and have been sent to the Ministry of Law and Justice for vetting. According to the officials, new board members will be appointed after these rules are approved and implemented.

ProPakistani reached out to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication for a comment, but the ministry chose not to respond.